Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, the LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.

The key verse, verse 12, in our extended reading for today is the Lord telling Ezekiel that the "house of Israel" had committed sin both privately, "every man in the chamber of his imagery", and also publicly.

The children of Israel were acting as if the Lord had forsaken the earth and He had no way to see them. As we read the entire eighteen verses we can see what made the Lord say these things to Ezekiel.

In fact, the Lord would actually bring Ezekiel, physically, to Jerusalem from where he was in Babylon. The Lord, "took me by a lock of my head", verse 3, and He brought the Prophet into Jerusalem and into the Temple.

In the front of the Temple was "the seat of the image of jealousy", verse 3. This was an idolatrous statue of some kind, most likely a "vulgar obelisk" that desecrated the Temple complex.

Inside the sanctuary there were all types of idolatrous portraits on the walls of the Temple, verses 6-10. Ezekiel was shown the "abomination" that the Sanhedrin, the "seventy men of the ancients", verse 11, had done.

Verse 14 reveals the women that sat there in the Temple, weeping over Tammuz. I'll come back to that in a moment.

The Lord told Ezekiel that he would see a "greater abomination" than he had already seen. The Lord pointed out to the Prophet the twenty-five men between the porch of the Temple and the altar.

These men had their backs to the Holy of Holies where the "Glory of the Lord" hovered over the "Ark of the Covenant", verses 15-16. This passage reveals that these men, most likely priest that served in the Temple, these priests were worshiping the "sun".

Verses 17-18 contain words, which expresses the anger of the Lord over these abominations at the Temple. Notice the words of the Lord in verse 18. He said, "He would deal with these Jews, His eyes would not look upon them, to have pity". He said, "Even if they cry out to me, even in a loud voice, I will not hear them."

The "spiritual application" of this passage for the Christian today is that many of our places of worship, the Churches, have become an "idolatrous" gathering place. More and more the "world" is creeping into our present-day worship centers.

The focus of the worshipers has been diverted from the "Holy God" and "His Holiness" to the "imagery of the world", the "image of jealousy" before the Lord. God cannot hear the "very loud" shouts of so-called "praise and worship" if there is no "holiness".

Please go back to verse 14 where it speaks of "Tammuz". This is the son of the "mother-son cult" that was started in Babylon, 4,500 years ago. This "mother-son cult" will be a part of the "one world religion" revealed in Revelation 17 that will be headquartered in the city of Rome, Italy, during the first half of the seven year Tribulation Period.

The Lord did deal with these issues, in "His fury", verse 18, at that time in history. However, the Lord will not only deal with some of these same issues of the Jewish people in the future, as He did in the past, but He will deal with these issues, in the Church, when He comes to call us up to be with Him in the heavenlies at the Rapture of the Church.

PRAYER THOT: Help me Lord to focus on You and Your Holiness for my worship and praise and not the things of this world.